Equipment for automatically winding blank or pre-recorded magnetic tape into cassettes, such as audio or video cassettes, is known. Such devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,997,123, 3,814,343 and 4,836,464.
Typically, blank or pre-recorded magnetic tape is provided on one or two supply reels or "pancakes", which are mounted on hubs on the cassette loading machine. The blank or pre-recorded tape on a pancake is commonly referred to as "use tape".
A cassette, prior to loading, generally has two hubs located inside a plastic shell which are connected by a leader. An empty cassette (which has the two hubs connected only by a leader) is automatically delivered, from a magazine to a tape loading station of the cassette loading machine. At the loading station, a portion of the leader of the empty cassette is extracted and cut into two pieces by a cutter mechanism. Use tape from a pancake is spliced to one of the ends of the two cut leader pieces, and a pre-determined length of the use tape is wound, by a winding spindle, onto the appropriate cassette hub. For instance, enough blank use tape for 30, 60, 90 or 120 minutes of recording time may be wound onto the cassette hub. Alternatively, a portion of use tape containing a pre-recorded program (e.g. a record album) may be wound onto the cassette hub.
A control system synchronizes the motors that run the winding spindle and the supply reel hubs in order to maintain proper tension on the use tape during the winding operation. After the correct amount of use tape is wound onto the cassette hub, the use tape is cut and the cut section of the use tape is spliced to the remaining leader piece. The now loaded cassette is ejected or removed from the winding station and a subsequent empty cassette is inserted. The tape loading and winding operation is then repeated.
As indicated above, an empty cassette is delivered to a cassette winding station from a magazine. Two main types of magazines have been employed in the storage of empty cassettes to be loaded. The first is a curved or "elephant trunk" magazine which requires the operator to manually orient all the cassettes in the same direction. This creates a curved stack of cassettes which roughly conform to the magazine. A weight is then required to force the cassettes down to the bottom of the magazine. This type of magazine eliminates the need for rotation of the cassette from a horizontal to a vertical position since each cassette rotates through approximately 90.degree. during its travel from the top to the bottom of the magazine.
A second type of magazine is a straight or vertical magazine. This type of magazine allows cassettes to be oriented in alternating directions (i.e. the way in which empty cassettes are typically packed) thus saving labor and simplifying the machine operator's task. Since cassettes are generally loaded while in a vertical position, this means that the cassette loading machine must rotate the cassette and orient the cassettes to a single common direction.
When the curved magazine is employed (as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,997,123) the first cassette located at the terminal end of the magazine is typically pushed, by a mechanical pusher mechanism, into a very short guide mechanism which guides the empty cassette into a cassette nest for loading. The cassette is held in the nest by a leaf spring mounted to the front panel of the machine behind the cassette. Each succeeding cassette which reaches the terminal end of the magazine rests on top of the cassette which is in the nest. When the cassette in the nest has been loaded, the cassette at the terminal end of the magazine is pushed with the pusher mechanism. Since this empty cassette is resting on top of the now full cassette in the nest, this action pushes the full cassette out of the nest and pushes the empty cassette into its place. (The force of the pusher mechanism overcomes the spring force of the leaf spring holding the cassette in the loading station.)
There are a number of drawbacks associated with this approach to cassette delivery. First, the operator must manually orient the cassettes prior to placing them in the magazine. Once the cassettes are placed in the magazine, a weight is needed to maintain the steady flow of cassettes toward the magazine's terminal end. This causes an operator still further delay in reloading the magazine. Additionally, the use of one cassette to push another cassette out of the loading station can mar the cassette shell and damage the cassette mechanism.
One approach to cassette delivery using a vertical magazine is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,814,343. In that approach the lowermost cassette is pushed sideways out of the vertical magazine into a receiver (which also functions as an orientor) which receives the cassette from the magazine and rotates it 90.degree. from a horizontal to a vertical position. The receiver rotates the cassette forward or backward depending on the direction the open end is facing (ultimately, the open end must face down). The receiver is located at the loading station. Thus, when the cassette is pushed into the receiver, it is also being pushed into the loading station. When the cassette is full, the receiver rotates it 90.degree. to a horizontal position. A second pusher mechanism located behind the front panel of the machine pushes the cassette into a discharge chute. The next cassette is then pushed into the receiver and the process is repeated.
This approach causes delays in the winding sequence because the cassette must be rotated immediately before it can be loaded. Still further delay occurs when the cassette must be rotated again prior to leaving the loading station. This approach does, however, avoid the manual orientation of cassettes prior to their placement in the magazine.
In another previously developed tape loading machine, empty cassettes are stored in a vertical magazine. The bottommost cassette from the magazine is pushed, with a pusher mechanism, into a rotating orientor. The rotating orientor maintains the cassette in a horizontal position, but rotates it 180.degree., if necessary, so that the open end of the cassette faces outwardly. A door, located beneath the rotating orientor, opens when the cassette is properly oriented. The door opens to an angle of approximately 45.degree. at which point the empty cassette slides out of the rotating orientor and falls into a vertical guideway. The bottom front edge of the cassette contacts two spaced apart vertical guide members which comprise a portion of the vertical guideway. This contact serves to complete the rotation of the cassette from a horizontal position to a substantially vertical position.
When the bottom of the cassette is approximately 75% of the way down the guideway, it contacts a pin cylinder which retains it in an intermediate position above the loading station. (This intermediate position is used to sense which side of the cassette, if any, has the screws showing). When the loading station is empty, the pin cylinder is retracted and the empty cassette falls into the loading station. A platform at the bottom of the loading station stops the fall of cassette and maintains it in position for loading. When the cassette is full, the platform retracts and the cassette falls into a discharge mechanism.
Because of variations, cassettes have a tendency to rebound when they freefall from the intermediate position and hit the platform in the loading position. This delays the wind sequence because time must be allocated to allow the cassette to settle. Misalignment of the cassette can also occur because of this rebounding. This causes blocking and also delays the wind sequence.